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<p class="heading"><span class="smallhead">Professional</span><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio<br />
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<h1>Chapter 1 - Introduction</h1>

<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>
Welcome to the exciting world of robotics! Whether you are new
to robotics, or an old hand, you will find that MRDS is an
interesting platform. It provides a high-performance multi-tasking
environment for robotics applications as well as a
sophisticated 3D simulation environment that mirrors many of the
real-world robots supported by MRDS (see below).
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<p>
This chapter gives an overview of MRDS, how to install it, and what its capabilities are.
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<h2>Contents</h2>
<p>
A variety of real robots is covered in this book,
including the ones shown below:
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<img src="Images/RealRobots_small.JPG" alt="Some real robots" />
<p>
Some of the built-in Simulation Entities are shown
in the next picture, but the book explains how to
develop your own simulated robots and provides
examples, including a four-wheel drive robot, a hexapod and a robotic arm.
</p>
<img src="Images/SimEntities_small.JPG" alt="Simulated robots" />

<p>
There is only a single sample application in this chapter.
The FirstService directory contains a VPL diagram that 
causes a phrase to be spoken and displayed in a dialog box. 
FirstServiceCompiled is the C# version of that diagram which 
can be compiled and executed like any other service.  The 
welcome.cmd script in the bin directory runs this service.
This chapter also shows several examples of real applications that
have been developed using MRDS and previews the
examples from the rest of the book.
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